Question: If you were to choose from the three different times: the time leading up to a Congress, the time during it, or the time after the congress, which is the most effective time?

Answer: One period is impossible without the others! If I don’t receive great inspiration during a Congress, and if I don’t descend after it, then I will have nothing over which to ascend and no strength to ascend. I am talking about an ascent to the next degree.

Every ascent is based on 1.) receiving the strength from the environment, receiving the greatness of the goal and the Creator during a Congress, 2.) revealing new egoistic desires (descents) right after a Congress, and 3.) making the effort to rise above the desires and finding the strength that we receive, drawing closer together, getting involved in the routine of the work, and preparing for the next Congress as quickly and intensely as possible.

Before a Congress we are constantly preparing ourselves for the forthcoming meeting; we get ready to unite. We prepare to receive an impression from such a great number of people around us during the Congress so that they can influence each of us as much as possible, and so that everyone will be in awe from the impressions they receive. After all, the only freedom of will consists in absorbing the strength from the environment.

The influence of the environment is the only means for a spiritual ascent. The more inspiration I absorb from the others during a Congress, the greater the degree that I can then ascend to by realizing this inspiration. It should become my own, constant sensation of belonging to the common desire (Kli).

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/10,"Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot"

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Question: During the Congress, how can we keep from forgetting that the Light influences us if we work correctly, that darkness is an integral part of the work, and the group is what holds us up during a period of darkness?

Answer: Before such a big Congress as we are to experience in a few days, as well as during and after it, a person goes through various states: ascents and descents. One should be happy that changes are occurring in him. And the more rapid and intense these changes are, the better it is.

Our only concern should be uniting with others instead of searching within ourselves and analyzing our feelings. We should constantly try to merge with the common field, and place ourselves under the influence of the group without any extra reasoning.

Set aside all the clever discernments for now. The Congress is not the time to sit alone in a corner and check what this or that state means. Otherwise there will be “more talk than action.” At a time like this, actions are of the greatest importance, as it is written, “We shall do and we shall hear!”

Everything at the Congress will depend on how much you include yourself in the group like a little child who is among adults. He doesn’t think with his head; he just wants to imitate them. As they laugh, I laugh. As they cry, I cry. As they listen, I listen. And I do this because I want to receive inspiration from them! Then it will not matter who is a beginner and who is knowledgeable and experienced; who is small and who is big. Just try to tune into the environment and you will feel how you receive the power of bestowal above your reason.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/21/10, “And There Was Evening And There Was Morning”

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Question: Why won’t the Creator answer my appeals no matter how much I cry out to Him?

Answer: This is because it is not yet a correct plea but a “child’s tantrum” that nobody pays much attention to. A cry is a desire. When an adult is screaming and crying, it is a sign that something serious must have happened. To be an “adult” means to possess a clarified desire, to understand what you want. We need to clarify our desire. If our inner cry, the inner desire, will suit the Light, the Light will become revealed in it and will allow us to sense a spiritual reality.

Essentially, we are studying the physics of the spiritual world, the precise laws of the interplay between the Light and desire. The Light has built the desire with five parts; each part subdivides into another five, and another five. Altogether, there are 125 degrees through which the desire can become like the Light; that is, there are 125 steps to raise the desire up the spiritual ladder toward the Light until it becomes just like Him.

What does the cry mean? It is a desire for the attainment of an even greater similarity to the Light that I, myself, develop within me. Once I do the appropriate actions and bring myself to similarity to the Light, the Light becomes revealed! But if I do not perform the right actions, the Light will not reveal itself.

For this reason, there is no need to cry. What is needed is for you to change your desire until you reach the Light. In order for you to transition from one state to another, to change yourself to such extent that you ascend to the next degree, you need to prepare for several months, or maybe years, or even lifetimes. Everything depends on the environment, on your perseverance and pressure, and your efforts to accelerate time.

However, the Light does not “patronize” anybody. Nobody has any opportunity to scream in a special way for Him to help. These are strict laws like in physics: either you suit the next step or you do not. If you have enough strength to move yourself, then you move; if not, then you stand still. If I need to move a huge load, I will only be able to move it when my strength becomes at least an ounce greater than the load, but not sooner.

This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to attract the Light which will give us additional strength to become like it. I can attract the Light called the “Surrounding” Light or the “Light that Reforms” from the state that I want to ascend to. This Light will influence my desire and will elevate me. It will make me similar to that Upper degree that the Light comes from. Meanwhile, I am unable to change by myself.

The entire wisdom of Kabbalah is in learning to attract this Light from Above while remaining below. In regards to this, it is written: “I created the evil, egoistic inclination and the Torah as the means for its correction because the Light in it Reforms.”

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/10, Article, “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment”

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A question I received: In a state of a descent, how can I hold onto the goal so firmly that I can turn the descent into an ascent and fall on my own rather than have the Creator hurl me?

My Answer: I need to control this descent and decide on my own that a downfall is necessary. I have to prepare myself for the descent beforehand like one prepares for a surgical procedure. What will help me not to “lose my head” during a descent and fall under the authority of my desires? A connection to the goal will help me feel the descent and rise instead of losing myself. I am unable to guarantee this for myself and therefore, I require the right environment to support me when I lose control as a consequence of the desires that are too big for me to handle.

When the time comes for a spiritual embryo to be born, to transition to the degree of feeding, it loses its current degree completely by turning over “head down.” So how is it able to connect these two states during the birth? How does it secure itself from becoming a miscarried fetus, and instead, adhere to the Creator on a higher degree in order to be born into a new world? For this we are given different Reshimot (spiritual records, genes): de-Aviut and de-Hitlabshut (from desire and from the Light).

It turns out that I will always be able to connect to two degrees simultaneously! This is what helps me to be born.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Creator fills the connection among our souls with Himself. Being closer to the other souls means being closer to the Creator and having an ability to begin perceiving Him filling our interconnection as Light, bestowal, and love. Instead of being momentary, this desire to unite with the other souls should be constant and always growing. If it lights up only occasionally and immediately subsides, it isn’t sufficient. We must strive to sustain and accumulate such states continuously.

Granted, a person cannot achieve this through his own efforts. Man is not able to control his desires and this is why he is given a group. The desires get renewed in a person in two ways simultaneously: according to a chain of informational records (Reshimot) and due to the influence of the environment. A person does not determine anything by himself.

Our error lies in the fact that we listen to our ego that tempts us to affect it by force, thereby pushing us in the wrong direction. The right direction is to induce ourselves but solely through the group. Only through the group can I impact my soul, while on my own, I have no means to reach it directly. My soul resides in my connection with the others, and only through this connection, in this indirect manner, am I able to affect myself.

Can I affect my genes or chromosomes and change something in myself with my own hands? Of course not! But there is a device – the group – with the help of which I can do it. So, I manipulate this device by my leverage: I apply simple corporeal actions and thereby affect my environment. In its turn, the environment can affect me on the spiritual level. The essence of this miracle is an opportunity to keep transforming myself till I become equivalent to the Creator.

Through my physical actions in this world, I influence the other bodies. Others, through these bodies, are able to affect me, my spiritual properties, that is, my soul. I myself cannot impact my soul no matter how much I’d like to. It is a very simple mechanism whose principle is that only connection among us leads to the revelation of the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/10, Article, “And the Lord Appeared Unto Him by the Oaks of Mamre”

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A question I received: If I raise my children on the principles of Kabbalah, through teaching them about love and bestowal, how will they survive in this egoistical world?

My Answer: Don’t fret over it. A child who grows up in an environment that provides only positive examples and motivates kind attitudes toward it does not become weaker than all other children. On the contrary, he discovers a multitude of good forces that assist and work for him, protecting him from the forces of evil.

Even in everyday life, we instinctively shield children from anything we consider bad and teach them to be kind to others, to compromise, and to be courteous. We act so because we innately understand that good relations with the environment – and not fighting with it or gaining something by force – imply security and peace.

It is evident that violence doesn’t solve any problems for an individual or a country. Those who use force always lose in the end, though they are hoping to succeed. This is how the corporeal world is built, where the only power that rules is that of the Creator. And even when it seems that someone is winning from using violence, we will surely see him fall. This refers to one person, a nation, and the world in equal measure.

We can succeed on one condition: having the equivalence of form with the Creator. This similarity is the key to success. Therefore, don’t be afraid that a child will receive a “soft” upbringing. Our task is to raise a person so that he becomes as close as possible to the Creator, and then, he will definitely succeed in life. Any other model of behavior will only harm him.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/1/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot, Item 5: Now you will understand what is written in The Zohar: “With this composition, the Children of Israel will be redeemed from exile.” Also, in many other books, it is written that only through the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah in the masses will we obtain complete redemption.

The sages also said, “The Light in it reforms him.” … Both the individual and the nation will not complete the aim for which they were created, except by attaining the internality of the Torah and its secrets. … Consequently, the expansion of the wisdom and the coming of our Messiah are interdependent.

Stated differently, it is impossible for us to achieve correction without the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. A person is built such that he is incapable to connecting to the Upper World on his own because he is opposite to it. He can only do it “artificially.”

We exist in this world, in an egoistic desire that wants everything for one’s own sake. But within this desire it is possible for a small egoistic desire for the Upper World, the point in the heart, to awaken. In our heart, meaning the desires of this world, we feel emptiness and disillusionment. But in addition to this sensation of emptiness in our world, a point in the heart awakens within us, a vague aspiration that longs for something higher.

These two desires together, the emptiness of this world and the aspiration for the Upper World, are the preparation for perceiving the Upper World. This is the most a person can receive inside him in this world to further his spiritual advancement. He receives the rest from outside, from artificial means in this world: a Kabbalistic group, teacher, and Kabbalah books. These means have been prepared for us from Above, and this opportunity does not exist in our world.

It turns out that an embryo of the future, the point in the heart, is present inside a person. Outside of it emerges the embryo of the future environment: the group, teacher and books. Through this environment a person connects to the spiritual world.

Abraham revealed the emergence of the following in man: a point of the soul and the environment (the books, teacher, and group). This enables one to attract Light from the spiritual world, which develops the soul from the point. Once the soul develops, a person is able to ascend into spirituality.

The point and its environment constitute our smallest spiritual state which has been broken, meaning it became egoistic. By using it we are able to correct the point – the broken, egoistic embryo of the soul.

This is why the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah is absolutely necessary, since without it none of us would know what to do and how to develop the embryo of the soul, the point, with the help of the environment (the books, teacher, and group). When we develop and correct it, then inside it we perceive the spiritual world.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/30/10, Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot

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A question I received: How can we strive for bestowal if we don’t perceive spirituality and don’t have a clear vision of the goal, spiritual objects, and forms? How can I aim myself at them and take a step in their direction without doing it wrong?

My Answer: That would be correct if speaking of externality, but spirituality is called the inner world. It requires internal evolution because it occurs solely based on our inner changes.

When I choose the environment by which to be influenced, I thereby determine what my next desires and inner transformations will be. My constant examination of progress is based on what advances me. Is it based on whether or not I have received egoistical fulfillment or satisfaction from something I did, a feeling of pride for my actions, receiving someone’s praise, gaining greater understanding, or attaining better perception? Or, am I progressing in spite of the emptiness in all of my egoistic desires? Am I willing to keep going without fulfillment, but by being fueled by another force?

What is this other force? I don’t know. I demand to be granted it. It is the force of bestowal and love. This force can’t be gained from the group; the group can only instill in me the importance of receiving it. The force itself has to come from the Creator.

I suddenly start sensing a whole laboratory within me and I don’t require any external images. I begin to see that the gradation of qualities and the examination thereof occur within me. What happens outside of me has no importance. I see the spiritual goal – to keep working fueled solely by love and bestowal – within myself as well. I wish my desires to be filled with the Reflected Light, not by the direct fulfillment. I want the sensation of bestowal, not the sensation of fulfillment by the Light.

Thus, I shun my doubts such as where is the external goal and how do I reach it. I now sense that it is within me. I examine and evaluate it by analyzing what fills my spiritual vessel and the source of its life energy and what it expects: satiated fulfillment or the fuel for bestowal. Then, I don’t feel that I am lacking some vision and external signs on the spiritual path, it is all within me.

When a person gradually transfers his attention from the external parameters to the internal ones, this transformation is the measuring device as to how close he came to the Machsom, the barrier that separates the corporeal world from the spiritual worlds or degrees.

That is when a person starts, with the help of the Creator, to control himself from the outside, through the group, in such way that he can work not for the sake of advancing according to his own egoistical criteria, but above reason. A person begins to operate on some foreign type of energy that he didn’t possess before. His body, the vehicle, starts moving on its own like an “eternal engine.” It is an indication that he has begun to receive the energy of bestowal that serves as his fuel.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/28/10, Article, “Sometimes You Call Spirituality By the Name Soul (Neshama)”

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A question I received: In books, there is always a main character of the story. When I read a Kabbalistic book and try to imagine all the internal forces are there also a central force as well as less important secondary forces?

My Answer: When you read a Kabbalistic book, what counts is not your understanding, but rather your effort. Spiritual revelation is a contradictory process. On the one hand, revelation is an intimate, individual process that occurs within me, and on the other, the forces that are needed to attain the revelation come from other souls through my connection with them. It looks like a contradiction in terms. I would rather my desire for spirituality stay one on one with the Creator and the Light that Reforms. Yet, if I wish to reveal spirituality, I can do so only in the Light of bestowal which comes to me through the group.

So it follows that I use my point in the heart (a desire for spirituality) to read the Kabbalistic book, and while reading to want to put together the picture within myself as it is described in the book. But what material serves me as a basis for the changes I undergo? For this practical work, I am given the environment, the group. Only by being interconnected with each other whereby I relate to them correctly and they do the same in return, can we raise our request, MAN.

In return, I receive the Light that Reforms; that is, I am granted a correct attitude that enables me to see what is written in the book. That is when I begin to transform myself and see my authentic connection with others. At this point, establishing union with others is no longer a problem. They become my world through which I implement what I read about; by connecting with others, I feel the property of bestowal, our interconnectedness that the book was depicting.

For now I only sense an irresolvable conflict. I agree to have a relationship between myself and the Creator, myself and the book, myself and the Light, myself and myself, myself and the world, myself and the group, but I always insist that everything starts with me! Here, however, I need to connect with the others in order to serve them, to act only for their benefit. This is something totally unclear to me.

How can I possibly switch the attention from myself to the others without feeling the difference between us? How can I open and give away my heart to them? At first, I refer to a Kabbalistic book using my egoism, but later on, I begin to understand that I need the force of bestowal. That is when I appeal to the group so as to receive a sensation of bestowal from it. And when I realize that I do not have and cannot have this property, I understand that I need the Light that Reforms which helps me transform myself in accordance with the book.

Having a common desire which we receive from the group, we all raise MAN. In return, I receive the Light of correction and begin to relate to a Kabbalistic book differently. I can build myself in accordance with the book’s instructions, like putting together a Lego set.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/24/10, The Zohar

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Karl Marx, Wage-Labour and Capital, Chapter 6: Our wants and pleasures have their origin in society; we therefore measure them in relation to society; we do not measure them in relation to the objects which serve for their gratification. Since they are of a social nature, they are of a relative nature.

My Commentary: The difference between Kabbalah and Marx’s methods for attaining a perfect society is as follows:

According to Kabbalah, a person is transformed with the help of the Torah (the Light that Reforms). According to Marx, human nature can be changed only by the influence of the surrounding environment and social relations.

It is possible that Marx was aware that he was only describing the first stage of correction: unification. And that afterward, in the attempt to unite, people would understand their inability to overcome their nature. Then they would reveal that they can use the Upper Light to unite. (See Baal HaSulam’s article “The Criticism of Marxism,” in the “Hauma” newspaper.)

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